The Barrette

Abstract

The Barrette Carling McManus (bio) She couldn't have known—her fingers brushing my forehead,pulling loose strands from my faceto fasten a plastic clasp, a butterfly,pressed hard against my skulluntil the loud snap sounded insideher bedroom where she eyed our familybefore church. "That's better," she'd sayto the mirror, palming my shoulders.We'd stand as if for a family photo,a mother with her eldest daughter,the bright barrette biting my scalp.No way she would have knownthat these insects scavenge saltfrom rancid animal skin and with rolled,forked tongues, suck nectar from fatflower heads, lick the acidic surfacesof polluted pools, flit in the air untillanding on a lizard's eyelid to drinkits tears. Of course she didn't know—not even the British book binderwho hand-stitched the first volumeof Butterflies and Moths understoodexactly how much nature affixeselegance to deviance, like a pairof wings folded in an open hinge. [End Page 13] Carling McManus Carling McManus is a queer poet whose work appears or is forthcoming in Meridian, Best New Poets, The Beloit Poetry Journal, and was selected as the Poetry Prizewinner in Carve Magazine's 2021 Prose & Poetry Contest. She is a two-time Rona Jaffe Foundation Scholar for the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and a Community of Writers alum. Carling lives on a mountainside with her wife and two border collies in Mink Shoals, West Virginia. Copyright © 2022-2023 Pleiades and Pleiades Press